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Frank Martin
Frank Martin is the main protagonist of the films and television series The Transporter. He initially serves as a reluctant hero. He is portrayed as a former Special Forces operative who was a team leader of a search and destroy unit. His military background includes operations "in and out of" Lebanon, Syria and Sudan. He retires from this after becoming fatigued and disenchanted with his superior officers. In simple terms, he got tired of seeing his best efforts turned to nothing by the same people paying him to do the job. So he puts his skills to action as a private driver for hire. Origin Frank Martin's country of origin is unclear - throughout the franchise, but Jason Statham, who portrayed the character in the original film trilogy, seems to speak with a "mid-Atlantic" accent, mixing his own Estuary English accent with a European and also with perhaps a generic Appalachian American accent, suggesting he could be European, British or American, but who may have spent considerable time in another country. In the 2002 film The Transporter, Frank Martin is shown to have received the Bronze Star medal of honor. Frank has already established a good reputation in his secondary, secretive line of work, all the while maintaining an apparently legitimate life. However he did manage to attract the suspicions of the police in France, where he had been living quietly in an old place on the coast. Background Possibly through his irish army and and his irish army ranger wing background, Frank is portrayed as having expertise with explosives, surveillance, hand-to-hand combat, and evasive driving. Emphasis is given to his skills as an accomplished driver, able to conduct seemingly impossible maneuvers while retaining perfect control of his vehicle. Frank often engages in hand-to-hand combat, having to improvise using unconventional weapons against his opponents. Martin is also an accomplished sharpshooter. Rules Frank Martin carries out his business according to strict rules,Plot summary for The Transporter which he is loath to break, and expects his clients to adhere to them or face a breach of contract. His rules are: # "Never change the deal" # "No names" # "Never open the package" #:(these first 3 are also mentioned in the TV Series) # "Never make a promise you can't keep" While at first these rules may seem unnecessarily strict, their importance is illustrated when Frank is hired to transport three men, but four arrive, straight from a bank heist. Explaining to them that the deal was for a precise number of passengers with specific weight and that fuel and suspension were specifically set to reach the destination, the gang is forced to remove their extra man by killing him or risk getting caught by the police. Frank's breaking of his own rules is the central theme in The Transporter. Rules of the car: # "Respect a man's car, and the man will respect you" # "Greet the Man" # "Seat belt" # "Never drink coffee on the car" #:and, in the third film, # "If you take care of the car, the car will take care of you" The Transporter In the first movie, Frank lives in France and is first hired to transport some robbers from a heist of a French bank. After escaping the police who tried to intercept them, they arrive at their destination and their boss tries to bribe Frank to continue to go to Avignon, but he refuses to negotiate the contract and separates them before returning home. The next day, the carrier learns that the robbers have been intercepted and it seems that the police are looking for their driver. Also, a French Police inspector named Tarconi visits Frank in his home but can not prove his involvement in the flight of the robbers. Later, Frank is hired to deliver a mysterious package to an American businessman know only as Wall Street. During the mission, the driver changes a flat wheel tire on the road in France but he notices that something is moving in the package and opens it. He then finds a tied-up and gagged young woman by the name of Lai. Under the pretext of doing one's needs, she manages to escape but Frank recaptures her and defeats two policemen who spot them before he delivers the package to Wall Street as promised. However, the criminal asks Frank to transport a briefcase and he accepts the job. The briefcase turns out to be a bomb who destroy Frank's 1999 BMW 750iL and almost kills him. A vengerful Frank returns to Wall Street's estate and injures many henchmen before stealing a car containing Lai. Initially considering leaving the Chinese woman in the middle of the road, the protagonist finally takes him home where he questions before serving him food and going to bed. The next day, the pair is visited by Tarconi and Lai pretends to be Frank's new cook and lover. Once the policeman has left, Frank and Lai start arguing but stop because other henchmen on Wall Street attack the house. They manage to escape through a secret passage, then they are again interviewed by Tarconi in his police station. When the latter is absent, Lai accesses his computer to obtain information on Wall Street, revealing that his true is Darren Bettencourt. She then convinces Frank to help save her family, immigrants currently in a container on a boat that Wall Street is about to sell into slavery. Frank and Lai infiltrate therefore in the office of Bettencourt and proceed to his interrogation. However, Mr. Kwai, Lai's father, enters the room and reveals himself as Bettencourt's leader and the brains behind the trafficking of human beings. Before Tarconi (who was able to trace Bettencourt through his computer) can arrive, Frank is stunned and Lai is taken away. Incarcerated, Frank faces Tarconi and convinces him to let him out saying he could fix everything in less time than it would take for the police. The next evening, Frank infiltrates docks where he is quickly confronted to Bettencourt and his henchmen. Fightning them longly, including in a bus and with oil, the carrier thwarts all their methods to eliminate it and uses a car, then a plane to track the load of trucks carrying immigrants. After getting rid of one of the drivers, he is a last time confronted Bettencourt that he kills by throwing on the road from the cab of a truck. Mr. Kwai then takes him apart and prepares to kill him when Lai shoot him. In the end, Frank's and Lai's efforts allowed the police to rescue immigrants from at least one container. Transporter 2 Some time after his meeting with Lai and the alleged dissolution of Mr. Kwai and Darren Bettencourt's human smuggling ring, Frank became friends with Inspector Tarconi. The driver now lives in Miami, Florida, United States, where he befriended a local resident named Audrey Billings, the wife of a wealthy politician, Jeff Billings, who is heavily involved in the fight anti-drug. Frank serves as a temporary driver to their young son, Jack. After neutralizing a gang of robbers who tried to steal his 2005 Audi A8 6.0 W12 in a parking lot, Frank goes to get Jack at school and takes him back to his parents. The same evening, he has an intimate discussion with a drunk Audrey that he accompanies. The next day, Frank takes Jack to the hospital for a medical checkup but henchmen led by a blonde young woman named Lola murder doctors and try to inject a serum to Jack, which Frank prevents. Unfortunately, when he takes Jack home, the carrier is threatened by Lola, who forces him to take them to his lover and boss, the infamous Gianni Chellini. During the confrontation, the terrorists kidnap Jack while Frank is forced to leave alone. Lola tries to kill him with a bomb that a henchman previously secured under his car, but he fortunately performs a corkscrew maneuver under a crane so it catch the bomb just before Lola blows it up, allowing him to survive once again to an assassination attempt to himself. Back home, Frank attends the Tarconi arrestation by local agents, then returns to the hospital where he bypasses security before accessing the CCTV footage that he steals so he can identify one of the terrorists present at the hospital. At the same time, Frank tries to learn more about the substance that the bad guys tried to administer to Jack but it is destroyed by a security officer in a brief confrontation. With the help of Tarconi (who assists him from the police station where he is detained), Frank discovers the location of the identified terrorist, Dimitri, and goes to his house to try to apprehend him. A long chase through the city followed with a face-to-face meeting in a bus where Frank pretended to administer part of the serum to Dimitri before following him to Chellini's hideout. Then there is a clash with Max, one of the henchmen, then with Dimitri and a scientist named Dr. Sonovich, who reveals to Frank that the serum is a virus supposed to affect all of Jack's entourage including Jeff and his colleagues. After recovering the antidote from the virus, Frank returns to the Billings home and injects him to Jack. He then briefly confronts security before going to Chellini's villa (which he discovered with Tarconi). Several battles against the many henchmen of the criminal ensue before he has the opportunity to confront him personally. He claims more antidote for Jack's parents but Chellini reveals that he has been implanted in his blood. He also admits he was hired by the Colombian cocaine cartel to kill Billings and his associates so they would have less trouble. Lola then makes an appearance and Chellini takes the opportunity to escape by helicopter (he must join his employers in Colombia). After once again escaping death, Frank eliminates Lola for good and pursues Chellini in a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster before being able to confront him one last time in the private jet that takes him to Colombia. The two fight and kill the pilot inadvertently, making the plane uncontrollable and crashing hit into the water. After paralysing Chellini with his elbow in the back, Frank lifts him to the surface with a lifejacket. It is implied that Chellini was arrested and that the antidote was extracted from his blood and administered to parents Billings and other politicians. After renouced to visiting the Billings in their hospital room, Frank escorts Tarconi to the airport and gets back in his car where he receives a call from a man who needs a carrier, implying that he will see himself entrust other tasks. Transporter 3 Frank has been pressured into transporting Valentina (by using a device which prevents him from moving 75 feet from his car or a bomb attached to him explodes which was unknowingly attached to him after a car crash) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Tomilenko, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Tomilenko to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger, whom he realizes is the package mid-way through the film. Despite Valentina's cynical disposition and Frank's resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another. Martin again drives an armored Audi A8 W12 in the film, as well as a BMX bicycle. The Transporter Refueled Personality and Traits Frank is good to a fault. He is excessively fiery, motivated, civically minded and brave. He's also kind-hearted, loyal, compassionate, ambitious, and fierce. He will fight to the bitter end to foil the plans of bad guys. While quite the charmer, Frank has the confidence, good-looks, and quick wit to back it all up, too. He is confident, charming, and caring. But his signature charm is endearing rather than arrogant. He is driven by his selflessness and empathy, especially when it comes to villains. References Category:Characters